Amazon Tribe Says Brazil's "Pandora" Dam Polluting River

In Brazil's Amazon state of Para, Norte Energia construction crews begin to block sections of the Xingu River in order to start building the 11,200 megawatt Belo Monte dam. Local indian tribes complained to authorities this week that the trucks are dumping mud and gravel into a river they use for drinking and cooking.

Brazil's Arara tribe in Para state, home to the monstrous Belo Monte hydroelectric dam, has filed a complaint with Federal Public Attorneys saying that early-phase construction of the power plant is polluting the river with mud and dirt.

Para's Federal prosecutors have grown accustomed to complaints about Belo Monte by local tribes. Some public attorneys in the northern Amazon state have even tried to ban the construction of the dam themselves, but each case was overturned by a higher court in Brasilia, the nation's capital.

In a letter to public attorneys general on Tuesday, the Arara tribe said that they were concerned about the quality of potable water derived from the Xingu River, an Amazon tributary. The village is essentially surrounded by virgin forest and has no well water and therefore is reliant on the Xingu River for drinking and cooking.

"The river is muddy and the people are drinking this water," the tribe wrote in their complaint. Tribal leaders also said that a pre-construction environmental project called The Xingu Program, or Programa Médio Xingu in Portuguese, had not yet been approved and therefore the river work should not be allowed.

The District Attorney Terre Claudio do Amaral, called on the Brazilian Environmental Protection Agency, Ibama, and the National Water Agency to at least inspect the water around the Belo Monte construction site to see if there is any validity to the Arara people's complaint. They did not say whether or not there was an issue with the pre-construction obligations not being met by Belo Monte owners.

Belo Monte is run by Norte Energia, a consortium of government energy companies, along with smaller stakes from construction firms and mining giant Vale (VALE), which owns roughly 9% of the 11,200 megawatt dam. It's location, in the heart of the Amazon, has created worldwide controversy. Hollywood environmental activists like James Cameron, in particular, compared the construction of the dam to the struggle between native tribes and big mining interests that battled in his blockbuster film "Avatar". Cameron actually made a short anti-Belo documentary in 2010 called "Letter from Pandora" and has lent his name and voice to stopping the construction of hydroelectric dams in the jungle.

Brazil currently has two other mid-sized hydroelectric dams being built in urban areas outside of the Western Amazon.

Arara tribal village on the Xingu River, new home to the massive Belo Monte dam, aka Brazil's "Pandora" dam. Once built, it will be the third largest hydroelectric power plant in the world.

Brazil's electricity is mainly powered by hydroelectric dams. At least 85% of the country's power comes from dams, according to Eletrobras (EBR), Brazil's government controlled electric power holding company. While hydroelectric power does not burn fossil fuels, building one requires large swaths of land to be dug up and rivers to be diverted.

Norte Energia is currently building a make-shift dam around the Xingu in order to permit civil engineers to start building this year. But doing so requires mountains of Brazil's signature red earth to be dumped along the river's edge, inevitably filling sections of the river with dirt and gravel.

The Arara tribe said in their Jan. 17 letter, signed by tribal chief Jose Carlos Arara, that they were surprised by the river changing color, with muddy waters along the river's edge just outside the small tribal home.